Pastor Jeremy Stephens

Don Juan is gone.

Yesterday we were laughing at a male goat we named Don Juan.

We ate him tonight for dinner. That was a weird experience. At least he was tasty!

Today we woke up early again, although it seems like I’m the last person awake every morning. No surprise there! After breakfast, we went and visited a sister church to the one here in dame-marie. It was a tiny little church crammed full of people. After being in the building for a few minutes, we started to look around and wonder how the building was holding together-

Notice the corners? I think each wall was independent of the others. We gave greetings to the people of the church, sang a few songs, then took pictures of all the adorable kids

As we were leaving, several kids were walking by with corrugated sheets of aluminum roofing. They had walked into town to get all of the material to finish a home in their village, and were on their return home. We asked them how far they had to walk, and they said that the trail they were on would cross the same river 17 times. It was an all-day walk.

Of the kids we talked to, none of them were older than 14 years old. Some were as young as six. It was simply unreal to think about the life they have.

We returned back to the church we’re staying in and had lunch. Then, immediately following lunch we went out to another church to install one of the water filtration systems we brought with us. It was a 40 minute ride over the roughest road we’ve been on yet. I decided that a road in Haiti is simply just a long place where there are no trees. It was brutal. When we arrived, we set up the water system.

Its an amazing device. It will provide 10 years of clean water for 10 people. It only took a few minutes to set up, but we had to let water run through it for about an hour. During that time, we noticed a very ripe papaya in the tree above our heads. After one person in our group noticed it, there was instantly a man with a long bamboo pole there to pick it for us. It fell from the tree, we ate it, it was incredible.

Next thing we knew, there was an old man up in a coconut tree dropping fresh coconut for us. They cut them open for us so we could drink the water, then split them so we could eat the meat. I’m not really a coconut fan, but this was different. I loved it.

I’ve mentioned before that the love these people show to us is unusually magnificent. From the fresh fruit offered by a family without clean water, to the goodbye service we had this evening with the church, our hosts have been overwhelmingly kind. Tonight in the service I had the chance to play guitar as our group sang. Afterward, we each spoke our farewells to the congregation. I promised that I would learn more Creole if I could return. While Pastor Glass gave his closing sermon, about 6 kids sat next to me on the pew. One little boy, maybe 4 years old, fell asleep leaning against me. It was pretty awesome. Following the service, we ate another amazing meal (Don Juan was tasty). Then the pastor came in to offer his goodbye’s with his staff and deacons with him. Then they presented each of us with hand-made gifts, chocolate from the town, and pastry.

The generosity of the Haitians was awesome. I learned today that the women who have prepared our meals have been sleeping on the floor in the dining area each night. They are up before 5 am, and usually don’t finish their work until after 11 pm.

Its hard not to feel guilty about all of this hospitality. However, I learned something else about them by looking in their eyes. When you can’t understand the language, you tend to look for any other means of communication. You rely heavily on non-verbal cues. I learned by watching the eyes of our hosts that they take exceptional pleasure in caring for us. To turn them down would be to remove their joy. Oh that my heart could be like theirs.